Hours of Midnight
by Pop Weasel
Summary: Qui-Gon and three other Jedi are sent to investigate the deaths of a Knight and his Padawan aboard the Twilight Kiss, only to find something not of this galaxy. Scary huh?
1. Nightfall

Twenty-Four Hours of Midnight  
  
By Pop Weasel  
  
Summary  
  
Something that hunts in the darkness has taken over the Twilight Kiss, a team of young Jedi Knights is sent to find out what the Hells going on.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the concept or anyone else of George Lucas's creation, but whoever you don't know is mine. Also, the poems in this story are from The Book of Counted Sorrows by Dean Koontz. You can find them in his many excellent books and by going to http://www.veinotte.com/koontz/sorrows.htm.  
  
I watched Event Horizon and The Phantom Menace. I had a horrible dream. So I decided to write it as a fanfiction. This is what happens when you don't listen to your parents when they tell you to shut the VCR off and go to bed.  
  
Enjoy.  
  
* * * * *  
  
A gasp of breath,  
  
a sudden death:  
  
the tale begun  
  
Harsh breathing accompanied pounding footsteps as Maris Mynal fled down the darkened last stretch between the gun turrets and the cockpit, her final salvation.  
  
Her lightsaber provided a hollow comfort and cast the final lengths in a icy blue glow. It was growing hot in her hand, she had not dared to turn it off for a good two days, when the power in the Twilight Kiss had finally run out and the lights went off.  
  
Only darkness-and something else-resided behind her, sole survivor of the slaughter in the cargo bay, where her master-  
  
A choked sob caught in her throat. His screams hadn't been the worse, but she would remember them forever, telling her to run-get to the cockpit and send for help. She reached the cock-pit-the door already open from a Force-flung object-and was drenched in cold darkness.  
  
The door slid shut behind her, its hiss not quite muffling the gasping breath from the darkness and the soft whisper of her name in her master's voice.  
  
Maris shuddered and locked the door. It-yes, that's what it was, an It- had tried that earlier, pulling the Twilight's chief Engineer in the deadly darkness after the terrified man was convinced that he could hear his missing brother calling to him. It was damn smart, whatever It was.  
  
The controls felt foreign under her shaking hands, sluggishly responding to her commands. Her master's last act had been to start the back-up battery for the comms. She hoped it worked.  
  
"The Jedi Temple on Coruscant." she said aloud, hoping It would hear her and know It's days were numbered.  
  
"Open the door Maris." something outside said in her dead masters voice.  
  
Maris punched the buttons in grim desperation.  
  
"Please Mar," It whimpered, scratching on the permasteel door. "It's so cold out here."  
  
"Go away." she pleaded.  
  
"Maris.......it hurts."  
  
Static blared into words, distant, but undeniably warm, human words.  
  
"This is the Twilight Kiss," she said into the headset in a panic. "Mission critical, I repeat, mission critical. We've sustained mass casualties. Jedi Master Adsion Bilo and the rest of the crew are dead. Please get this to the Temple on Coruscant, I don't think the power-"  
  
And the lights went out.  
  
"Maris......." It hissed from outside. "Come play in the darkness Maris." Pleaded a child's voice.  
  
It's leathery voice could not quite conceal the sound of the permasteel door being forced open.  
  
Maris gripped her lightsaber, turning to face her killer. "Turn not thy from Death away. Care not he takes our breath away-" she whispered aloud to ward off the numbing terror. "Fear him not, he's not thy master-"  
  
And the screams began.  
  
* * * * *  
  
This is not the path I sought  
  
This is not the life I want  
  
Just a fever of Fate that I've caught  
  
  
  
Qui-Gon Jinn looked over Captain Jerit L'ttle's, called "Papa Bear" by his affectionate crew, shoulder as the young spacer did a second flyby of the drifting Twilight Kiss, cutting it close as he dared by the moving ship. Jerit pointed to the emergency flashers on the aft and port sides as he brought the Wake Angel around to the front.  
  
"They should be going off like crazy, emergency power cells reserve for things like that." The captain edged forward to get a closer look. Qui-Gon Jinn nodded accordingly, actually not having a clue in the Seven Hells to what the captain was pointing at. Jerit grinned, swinging the Wake Angel around to the port side of the deserted ship and describing the flashers in a loving detail that only a spacer could accomplish. Qui-Gon shook his head apologetically, smiling sheepishly. "Sorry, starship's aren't my thing."  
  
Jerit laughed and sidled up to the docking hatch of the Twilight Kiss. " Then I'll leave you to your thing and you leave me to mine."  
  
"Deal." Jinn said.  
  
The ebon haired captain pressed a greenish button near his hand and spoke loudly into the mic beside it. "Baby Bear, ready the loading procedures." The static rumbled for a moment before a fairly young woman's voice answered him with a tart reply.  
  
Qui-Gon cleared out of the cockpit during the docking, his experience with ships limited to getting on and off, and ambled down the dim halls, searching for his fellow Knights.  
  
He found one in the lounge, hunched over a jumbled piece of wires and rods with a slender device that connected the mess together. So intent was he with his workings that he didn't hear Qui-Gon until the other plopped down next to him with a sigh.  
  
Dram Jani spared him a blue glance and a wry grin before returning to his latest project. "Mace is in the galley, and Peire is skulking in his room."  
  
"Why" would be a stupid question then?"  
  
"Most definitely, you know his type. Data-worms always skulk."  
  
Qui-Gon laughed at Dram's reply and prodded the jumble on the table. "This?"  
  
"Remote. Plug it in to any control panel and you have the run of the entire system. Master Yoda tried to take it away before we left. Said "Trouble, you are. Like to kick you, I would."  
  
"He did not."  
  
Dram's over-innocent pouting face gave him away before he even opened his mouth, so he grinned his famous grin and went on with finishing the remote. The two Jedi stood as one when the final buzzer went off, signaling that the docking was completed. Their third companion, a tall, dark skinned youth with dark eyes entered, laughing with the Wake Angel's First Mate, Jayce, who was consequently Captain Jerit's little sister.  
  
"I don't know how you do it." Dram commented as Jayce left them with a promising wink to Mace as she hurried to prepared for docking.  
  
"Unbelievable charm." Mace Windu replied without cracking a grin.  
  
"Charm," Dram snorted as they made their way to the loading bay. "You have all the charm of a puking infant."  
  
"At least I have charm. What Amira sees in you never ceases to amaze me."  
  
"Light switches amaze you, you----"  
  
"Boys." Qui-Gon warned with a laugh.  
  
"Yes Master Jinn." They replied somberly, exchanging eye rolls at their friends expense.  
  
The trio joined Jerit L'ttle and three others in the loading bay. Jayce stood by the doors, a heavy blaster rifle resting on her shoulder easily. "Ready boys?" the auburn haired woman drawled.  
  
"You're going?" Mace asked as if he hadn't heard her correctly. Jayce smirked as Jerit and his second mate joined them.  
  
"Of course she is," Jerit answered with a shrug. "She's my best data retriever."  
  
Qui-Gon, as senior Jedi on this mission, nodded for the go-ahead, bracing himself for the cold blast of air that had been trapped in the tunnel that connected the ships. As expected, it chilled his uncovered hands and face, but wasn't severe enough to penetrate his robes. Dram, who never remembered to wear his, shivered dramatically beside him. "The icy chill of death." The blond Jedi hissed lowly. Mace elbowed him as discretely as possible. * * * * *  
  
"Sweet Gremlins," Dram muttered, waving a hand in front of his face to alleviate the smell that assaulted the retrieval team the second they stepped aboard the Twilight Kiss.  
  
"Smells like Mace before his annual bath."  
  
"Shove it Jani."  
  
But Dram was right, a undulated small permeated the entire ship like a poisonous gas. Both Dram and Mace gave each other suspicious glances and moved apart.  
  
Qui-Gon gave them both evil glares and pressed on ahead.  
  
"Shall we?" Dram asked his dark companion lightly. Mace grinned and bowed. "After you, motor-mouth."  
  
Jerit's flashlight swept the dark hallways of the Twilights interior. The Jedi, Qui-Gon and Dram leading with Mace bringing up the rear. Jayce had fallen back with the dark skinned Jedi. Jerit rolled his eyes.  
  
They came to a branch, one leading to the cargo bay and the other to the cockpit.  
  
"Jayce, take Haris with you" Jerit advised. "And the rest of us will head to the cargo bay."  
  
"I'll go with them," Dram interjected, slipping past Qui-Gon. "You never know when something might try and eat us."  
  
'That's not funny Dram." Qui-Gon said softly. Dram grinned toothily at him and ushered Jayce and the man called Haris down the hall. That left Qui-Gon, Mace, Jerit and another man that everyone called Yix.  
  
'Be careful." Mace warned his blond friend as he faded into the gloom. Dram's handsome face reappeared briefly to blow a kiss at the Jedi before he to was swallowed up into the darkness.  
  
"He'll be fine." Jerit offered. "Jayce is one mean mother with a blaster."  
  
"I'm not worried." Mace said snappishly, falling in step with Jerit while Qui-Gon and Yix took lead. Jerit rolled his eyes.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Well, we found Adsion." Mace noted dryly.  
  
They had found the Master, several pieces of him to be exact. And that of the crew.  
  
Qui-Gon stooped next to the largest piece of the aging master and prodded it with the hilt of his lightsaber. "Where's Maris? He took her with him, didn't he?"  
  
Jerit nodded and scanned with the flashlight. "We think she was the one who sent that call out. Only half of it got through, but we got the genera idea."  
  
"Too bad it was too late." Mace said quietly, examining the rents in the metal floor near the wall. "Look at this."  
  
Qui-Gon leaned over him, frowning deeply. "Looks like claw marks." he observed.  
  
"There was no live cargo on the Kiss." Jerit reported helpfully. "She carried food supplies to mining colonies in the Rim. From what I hear, your Jedi were just hitching a ride."  
  
"Whatever it was," Qui-Gon said with a shrug, "It's gotta be big."  
  
"Such insight." Mace retorted sarcastically, standing. "Maybe we should see what--"  
  
And then a terrified scream rent the dead ship.  
  
"Dram." both Jedi Knights said in unison. Mace made a running sprint for the cock-pit, Qui-Gon yelling for him to stop, cursing when his friend didn't listen. Dram and Mace were nearly inseperable, and there was no way in Hell that Mace was going to let his annoying blond companion be killed by anyone but him.  
  
Qui-Gon motioned for Jerit to follow him quickly and ran after him, sprinting down the dark hallway at a dead run and nearly running right into Mace.  
  
The dark skinned Jedi was shaking a sprawled figure on the floor, calling for them to wake, when Dram appeared, unharmed but unusually grim, from the opened door of the cock-pit. His lean frame concealed the worst from view, but Qui-Gon could see the crust of dried redness that stained the floor.  
  
"Found Maris." the blond reported darkly. The tall Knight noted briefly that Dram held his lightsaber out and ready, and scolded himself for worrying about Jani. Dram could take care of himself rather well.  
  
"We found Adsion." Qui-Gon informed him, watching the handsome face dissolve into grief. Adsion had been the one to find a infant Dram in the wild hills of Illian, but, though he had not been his Master, the two had been close non-the-less.  
  
Jayce, on the floor, woke with a shriek, scooting back away from the open door with a horrified expression, her green eyes wide with terror.  
  
"Bag'um." Dram said snappishly, turning back into the cock-pit without another word. Qui-Gon stepped around Mace and Jayce and peeked in, almost immediatly recoiling from the smell.  
  
His first thought was someone had set a red paint bomb off inside the room.  
  
His second was to run screaming back to the Wake Angel.  
  
"Gods have mercy...." the older Jedi whispered while Dram heafted the remains of Maris Mynal's lightsaber, averting his eyes either out of respect of horror from the window of the ship.  
  
Where the head of the Padawan stared at them with a silent scream from where it was stuck on the control stick.  
  
* * * *  
  
Darkness devours every shining day.  
  
Drakness demands and always has its way.  
  
Darkness listens, watches, waits.  
  
Darkness claims the day and celebrates.  
  
Sometimes in the silence darkness comes.  
  
Sometimes with a gleeful banging of drums.  
  
Back inside the reletive safety of the Wake Angel, when they had finally finished bagging the bodies of the slain and stored them in the cargo freezer, Qui-Gon dared even look at Dram.  
  
The blond man sat at his table, tinkering with his latest gadget with a thoughtful expression on his face. The three Jedi sat alone from the rest, even Peire, who had dared emerge from his room long enough to aid with the cleanup, silent and brooding when Dram suddenly looked up at Qui-Gon.  
  
"When you fill the Council in on this, don't tell them how we found Maris."  
  
Qui-Gon studied Dram for a long moment before nodding. The girl deserved that much dignity for death.  
  
Mace grunted and slid one of the holo-pics that he had taken of the claw marks over to Qui-Gon. "Check it out, see that whitey colored thing?"  
  
"That really little thing?"  
  
Dram snorted, his shoulders shaking with supressed laughter. The other two ignored him. Dram was the owner, among otherthings, of a fairly dirty mind. Gods only knew what he had managed to get out of that last comment.  
  
Qui-Gon eyed the pic critically and tapped at it. "Chippings of whatever left the marks?"  
  
"Exactly." Mace said.  
  
The blond next to them snorted again, this time in disdain. "Right, so now we know that whatever it is, it chipped a nail. Great work, find it a manicurist and let's get the hell home."  
  
"Dram, try and work with us here." Qui-Gon asked, sliding the pic over to the other Jedi.  
  
"Why? Their dead and gone and nothing we do can fix it. Maris was sixteen, sixteen, she never even had a chance....."  
  
Mace clapped a dark hand on the slender blond's shoulder. "I know you were close to Adsion Janny," the Jedi said sympathetically, invoking the much hated nickname that the blond had been saddled with as a child. "If this hits too close, Qui and I can handle it....."  
  
Dram slienced him with a blue glare and snapped up the pic roughly, boring a hole in it with his azure stare. "Three inches apart. This sucker was big, whatever it was, the depth of the rents suggest that it was lunging to attack from a standing position, but there are multiple sets of marks, meaning that either this thing was bouncing all over the place, or we're dealing with something with four legs that can stand on two."  
  
"Like one of them bear critters on Adon." Mace pointed out helpfully.  
  
"And assuming that," Dram finished with a wrathful look in his friend's direction. "I gather that it's pretty damn quick."  
  
"Fast enough to catch a Jedi Master using the Force and a Padawan half a ship away behind a locked perma-steel door?"  
  
"Strong as well. I saw some more claw marks on the edges of the cock-pit door. It was pried open for sure."  
  
"Sooooooo......" Dram mused, tapping the pic. "Big talons, fleet feet, strong mother too boot, it's smart too."  
  
"How so?" Mace inquired, snatching the pic away.  
  
Qui-Gon snagged it away from Mace. "The way Maris was killed." he intoned, seeing Dram nod. "It knew what she was. Who she was calling. Who would come in response. It set her up that way. Nobody else but Maris was displayed in that manner."  
  
"There is another matter." Dram said softly, looking at the pic without seeing.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"We found her head. Where in the Hells is her body."  
  
* * * * 


	2. Twilight Begins-Musings

A/N-Okay, I know the first chapter was a little......ewww, but it had to be done to get the point across. I do not want you to think that you can go right up to this thing and pet it.  
  
Do not pet it.  
  
Disclaimer-'kay, I do not own anything that belongs to Master Lucas:(  
  
Nor any of the Koontz quotes. Happy?:)  
  
Note- since I cannot figure out how to get italics on here, this little thing ~ will stand for a persons thoughts. Let the ewwwness continue!  
  
Chapter Two-Twilight Hours-Musings(a.k.a something I threw together to link the fist and third chapters:)  
  
~Where's her body?~  
  
Dram's words echoed over and over in Qui-Gon's mind as he tried to sleep later that same night. Where was the body of Maris? He had seen enough gore in the cock-pit to last him a few lifetimes, but not enough to warrant that the girls entire body being shredded like that. If whatever It was-  
  
~Don't call it It~  
  
-had been smart enough to place the apprentice's head where they would be sure to find it and react the way they had, then what did It-  
  
~DON"T call it It~  
  
-want with a decapitated body?  
  
He shuddered despite the thick blanket and twisted in the cot uncomfortably. Through the wall he could hear Dram still up and tinkering with whatever he was working on, and Mace on the other side-snoring, and loudly.  
  
Peire had chosen a room as far away from his fellow Knights as possible. Qui-Gon couldn't figure that one out, he was obviously intelligent, but he hadn't even given the slain bodies a second glance after they had finished clearing out the Twilight Kiss, cold and distant as the Moons of Adon.  
  
Dram didn't like him. Dram didn't like anyone in what he called the "data-worm" category, which consisted of those who relied on facts and evidence before they believed what was right before their eyes. Qui-Gon thought that Dram just made that up because he himself didn't know what a data-worm was. The blue-eyed Knight did, however, admit that it sounded good and fit their quiet companion perfectly.  
  
Silence seeped into his cabin, telling him that Dram had at last given in to sleep. Qui-Gon sighed and rolled over once more. He should have brought Hart, or even Mneth Dartain instead of Dram. The blond Knight was too connected to Adsion and his Padawan, and it showed that he was clearly having a hard time working with so much death.  
  
Or at least to those closest to him, anyone else would have though he'd never met the Master in his entire life. Janny was like that.  
  
~Found Adsion ripped to shreds, and his lightsaber trashed. Found Maris's head and no body, but found her saber in the same room? What does it mean? Or does it mean anything?~  
  
Qui-Gon growled at his inability to sleep. Perhaps in the morning, they could recover the Kiss's log and find a clue.  
  
He rolled again and stared at the ceiling.  
  
~Where's her body?~ 


	3. Twilight Continued

A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long to get up, my computer crashed. Yes, they are fairly new Knights, this being their second or third mission, this is something that will be address later as the story goes on. ~grin~  
  
And believe it or not, I am really trying to keep some semblance of a plot-driven fic, some parts may or may not have a point later on, like that thing with the sabers in Chapter Two. (Where in the Seven Hells am I going to put *THAT* later on?) And I still have yet to figure out italics. Any hints.....?  
  
Don't know how long this one will be, but Hours of Midnight is the oddity of anything I've ever written. I'm a firm believer in happy endings. I like happy endings:)  
  
Okay. Standard issue disclaimer: I do not own SW or the characters- except for my own, hey, I take what I can get-nor anything related to Koontz or any other horror movie I'm pulling shadow plot bunnies from. A/N: Shadow plot bunnies are the evil counterparts to the regular plot bunnies.  
  
And a big huge thanks to all those who have reviewed so far!  
  
All set then? Good. Continue with the ewwness!  
  
Chapter Three-Twilight Continued  
  
Or are their dark fears exaggerated?  
  
Are these doom-criers addlepated?  
  
Qui-Gon woke from a black sleep in which he had been chased by some formless danger until he'd bolted upright in his cot with a soundless cry on his lips. His heart hammered in his chest, like one of Dram's gremlins had somehow possessed it and was now intend on pounding it to a pulp with a sonic-hammer and twelve of his cousins.  
  
Stupid gremlins.  
  
He took a deep breath to calm himself, winced from the smell of over- cooked meat that was undoubtedly the remnants of breakfast, rose from his cramped cot and dressed without ceremony. Dram ran around half-dressed, but there was no reason he had to.  
  
Fully awake but with the memory of last nights hellish dream still tagging at the edges of his awareness, the Knight ambled out into the hallway, noting that neither Mace nor Janny had decided to grace the Wake Angel with their presence-their doors were still both firmly closed, but the faint sounds of a shower being run trickled from Dram's quarters, trying to wash the smell of the Kiss off.  
  
Qui-Gon took an experimental sniff of his shirt.  
  
~Stop it you fool, who cares if you have a SLIGHT odor? You're here to find Adsion and Maris's killer, not smell rosy fresh.~  
  
Fortified with that thought, the tall Jedi headed for the monitoring room, a small alcove just off the cock-pit door.  
  
To his surprise, Peire was there, hunched over one of the blinking control panels with his strangely light green eyes glued to a screen with scrolling letters and numbers that flashed across the flat surface.  
  
"Captain's log. I'm decoding it." the usually reserved Jedi from the planet Baris-noted for their oddly colored blue hair and white skin-said before Qui-Gon was aware that Peire was aware that he was in the room.  
  
"Oh…..good." Qui-Gon blinked in confusion. ~Sneaky as a Adonian pop weasel~ he thought.  
  
Peire didn't look up, so Qui-Gon took a seat next to him, trying to see what the other was up to without appearing nosy.  
  
He failed. Perhaps this was a Jedi trait he'd yet to pick up.  
  
Peire scooted over--to make room and not because he smelled, Qui-Gon told himself--enough so that the other could see the screen before returning to his work. With nothing to do besides watch numbers, the tall Knight busied himself with pulling up the security files from another console and began scanning them with a critical eye, searching for anything to might lead to a clue.  
  
"Captain Jerit said that the Twilight Kiss was carrying supplies to the Rim colonies, right?" Peire's monotone voice broke-in. Qui-Gon looked up, his eyes already twitching from the strain of watching the tiny screen and every detail that might be important.  
  
"Yeah, uhhh.....food and materials for shelter and clothing, so-on so- forth. Why?"  
  
The Barisian Jedi pointed to a clutch of letters on the upper section of the screen. "Twelve days into the flight and six before we recieved the mayday from Padawan Mynal, the Twilight Kiss intercepted a call from a Republic crusier out of the Ghar system, they investigated on Adsion's insistance, but when they boarded the crusier, they found it abandoned, and that it had been left in a hurry. The captain of the Kiss confered with Master Adsion, and they concluded that perhaps the crew took a shuttle to one of the closer planets in the system. On a off note, they sent a message to the Ghar military in order to ascertain what happened, and they had yet to hear a response."  
  
"And that has to do with the Kiss's cargo.......?"  
  
Peire's pale green eyes seemed to grow brighter with the promise of a mystery. "Captain Plym of the Twilight Kiss ordered any salvagable materials taken from the crusier and added to the Kiss. If I can find the updated cargo list, I can see if the crusier carried anything of notice."  
  
"You mean," Qui-Gon said with a glance to the hallway, where the crew of the Wake Angel was stirring with increasing activity. "If they managed to drag aboard the very thing that killed them."  
  
* * * *  
  
Is the end of the world a-coming?  
  
Is that the devil they hear humming?  
  
Are those doomsday bells a-ringing?  
  
Is that the devil they hear singing?  
  
"Any better?"  
  
"Yeah, image is loud and clear.......Hey! Stop it!" Mace yelled, stomping down on Dram's hand as the blond yanked off his boot. "You're supposed to be fixing the link's feed!"  
  
"And you're wearing my damn socks." the blond replied easily, tossing his friend his boot and plopping down in the ajoining chair while Mace huffed and returned his foot back into his boot. "They better be back in my room by tomorrow, and clean."  
  
Mace stuck his tongue out at him and smacked the monitor that they were sitting in front of smartly on the side, granting him a static free screen, and a view of the docking hall of the Twilight Kiss.  
  
Dram rubbed his hands together and then wrapped the around a wheel-like device with a slew of wires connecting it to a control box that sat on front of him. "Aight," he drawled in Adonian slang with the grin of someone who was in their element. "Let's creep."  
  
The Creeper, one of Dram's many inventions that had evolved into something actually useful, was a cat sized robotic cockroach in Mace's view. It had eight spindily legs, a flat, insectile body that he barely kept from stepping on when he happened to look at it, and two bulbous eyes that was currently their view into the ghost ship.  
  
Dram carefully preesed down on a footpad located on the floor in front of him and the Creeper scurried forward, the halls of the Twilight Kiss flashing by in blurs of gray.  
  
"Hey, let off the gas." Mace protested. He was in charge of the camera that was mounted on the Creeper's back, just in case Dram missed something on the primary viewer.  
  
Dram grinned but let off the footpad a tad. The Creeper continued at the pace of a normal, cautious human.  
  
"Coming to a branch off, anything?"  
  
The dark skined Knight checked the other screen at his side, one that displayed a grid-map of the Kiss. A blue dot that designated the Creeper was the only thing on the screen. "Clear. Come off it Janny, you really think some serial killer is hiding out on the Kiss? We would have picked him up by now."  
  
The blond took a corner and almost toppled with the weight of the camera. The Creeper reeled for a moment and steadied itself before continuing. Mace sent Dram a sidelong look and returned to his camera monitor.  
  
"Closing in on the cock-pit." Dram announced. It was his plan to check the entire ship with this method before Qui-Gon insisted that they needed a workout and decided that they clear it manually.  
  
"Still clear."  
  
The cock-pit door was still open, allowing the Creeper in without hassle. The surely vibrant shades of red were lost with the washout of light emiting from the frontal bulbs on the Creeper's shoulders, but Dram could still tell they remained. His face twisted in disgust at the senseless deaths, Mace clapped him on the shoulder. "We'll find who did it Janny."  
  
Dram nodded and turned the Creeper around, arrowing for the cargo bay, singing one of his favorite songs-and one of his master's least favorite- under his breath. Mace winced.  
  
Aurora and the Supernovas.  
  
"It's a classic." Dram stated to his friend with a grin that didn't reach his eyes.  
  
"Classic piece of shi--what in the Sith is that?"  
  
Dram halted the Creeper a good ten feet from the cargo bay archway. Not even the lights of the robot could slice through the dark midnight that had enveloped the area. "What?"  
  
Mace panned his camera around, his eyes searching. "I thought......." he trailed off, narrowing his eyes at the screen. Nothing but depthless dark, darker than Death, Dram thought with a chill.  
  
"Maybe a womp rat?" the blond suggested hopfully, edging forward with the Creeper.  
  
Mace risked a glance at the grid-map and shook his head. "With this scanner, I'd pick up a mouse. Nerves." he added.  
  
Dram nodded, still not sure, creeped ahead, his hands gripping the wheel so tightly that his knuckles showed white through the light bronze of his skin. "I'll take what's behind Door Number Two please," he joked lightly, more to himself than Mace.  
  
"There!" the other snapped, jabbing at Dram's screen. The camera zoomed in as the robot scuttled forward. Shadows roiled as the metal beast approached and Dram stopped uncertainly. A faint, echoing noise, reminicant of footsteps on the floor of an empty room, nipped at their ears. Both Jedi looked at one another, eyes wide.  
  
"There's someone in there......." Mace whispered.  
  
And then a heavy hand dropped down on both of the edgy Knights shoulders. Dram let lose a reflexive shriek and dove to the side, taking a jumble of wires and the control stick for the Creeper with him. Mace threw up his hands and screamed, falling backwards in his chair and hitting the floor with hardly a pause in his frantic yelling.  
  
Qui-Gon Jinn looked down at his dark friend, hands on hips and shaking his head in disgust. Peire looked around the tall Knight's shoulder curiously, holding a small data-pad in one hand.  
  
"And you call yourselves Jedi." Jinn asked doubtfully. Mace scrambled to his feet, trying to salvage whatever amount of dignity he could, and adjusted the sleeve of his shirt.  
  
"Qui-Gon.....Peire." he greeted. "You surprised us greatly."  
  
"Couldn't tell."  
  
"Surprised my bantha, I think I wet my pants." said Dram as he pulled himself out of the wires and stood, unabashed as he checked the seat of his pants for that tell-tale wetness. He then grinned brightly at Qui-Gon.  
  
"Finished?" the older Knight asked.  
  
"Not by a long shot." the blond said cheerfully, then scowled at his control stick and the monitor. "There was something there."  
  
Qui-Gon nodded.  
  
Mace and Dram exchanged knowing looks of dread.  
  
"We're going on that damn ship aren't we?" Mace asked, rubbing hs temples while Dram again checked his pants.  
  
Qui-Gon nodded again. "Peire'll stay on the Angel and monitor our progress while we retrieve the cargo records for the Kiss--"  
  
"What is this "WE" stuff?" Dram whispered loudly.  
  
"--and see if WE can scare up any new information to report to Master Yoda."  
  
Mace looked plantivily at Dram. "I hate it when he says "We.""  
  
"Ditto my folically challenged friend."  
  
"Besides," Qui-Gon said as he walked out to retrieve a spare data-pad.  
  
"Here it comes." Dram muttered.  
  
"You guys could use the exersice." 


	4. Darkfall

~Whoooooohooooo~  
  
Disclaimer: Sigh, does it really need said? I don't own Star Wars or anything created by Master Lucas. Lalala, and if you try and sue me, all you will get a cat named Lloyd. Have fun. Lloyd doesn't like strangers. Hissssyow!!!  
  
Chapter 4--Darkfall  
  
  
  
"Lights."  
  
Instantly the Twilight Kiss came alive, the power flooding back into starved circuits and wires, banishing the black gloom with strong white light. The feed cable that linked the Kiss to the Wake Angel had held, despite Jerit's skepticism that such a weak link could possibly return the cruiser to power. Another score for Dram, who had dragged the cable along for a alternate version for the Creeper and had absolutely refused to board the Twilight Kiss without lights. Qui-Gon relented, after all, Janny was possibly one of the best all-around Knights at the Temple and a complete master with a lightsaber, if HE wasn't going on the Kiss without power, that said something.  
  
You guys reading me?  
  
"Unfortunately." Dram muttered as the airlock doors closed with a echoing thud behind the retrievel team.  
  
What was that? Peire's ever-serious voice cut into the head-set that the blond wore, identical to those of the others who had so foolishly volunteered to return to the Twilight Kiss with the Jedi.  
  
Jayce's muffed snort of laughter was the Barisian's only answer.  
  
Qui-Gon stepped farther inside the dead ship.. "Right then, I want Dram, Haris and Jayce to go to the cock-pit and see if there is anything that Peire missed in the files. We keep in contact at all times and we stay together, I cannot stress that enough. Mace, Yix and I will head to the cargo bay--"  
  
Qui-Gon stopped, seeing his fellow Knight's skeptical expression's at these orders. "Problems?" he asked after they snapped back to attention when he had stopped speaking.  
  
Dram shrugged and returned to watching the hall with a blue eyed glare, Mace looked plantive. "You really want to split up?"  
  
Is there any problems? Peire asked, sounding annoyed over the head-set. Qui-Gon adjusted the earpiece and answered that all was fine and they were just getting their bearings.  
  
Dram was twirling his lightsaber in one hand as they cautiously approached the spilit in the main hallway, one flick and the blade would ignite in a emerald flare. Qui-Gon shrugged off the sudden flare of unease as they seperated and the Illian Knight lead Haris and Jayce back to that hellish cock-pit. Dram was considered one of the greatest at the Temple with a saber, and the second-mate Haris had assured him that both he and Jayce were dead-on aims with blasters.  
  
~I though there wasn't anything to worry about?~ his inner voice nagged. He thought it sounded suspiciously like Dram. The tall Knight glanced back at the blond, just to make sure. Jani was still twirling his saber in one hand as they walked around a corner and out of sight, and was apparently humming something under his breath, amplified by the comm-unit on his head- set.  
  
Qui-Gon grimanced.  
  
Aurora and the Supernovas.  
  
The cargo bay should be right ahead Qui-Gon.  
  
"Thanks Peire." he returned. Mace halted as his tall friend and the dark haired Yix joined him at the cargo area.  
  
"Ready or not." Mace muttered and glanced at Qui-Gon. "Mostly not."  
  
Qui-Gon shrugged and pressed forward.  
  
The cargo bay looked much the same as the last time he had been there, stacks of blocky crates in the far corner, the floor littered and scratched with those odd claw rents, and the scattered shards of a lightsaber crystal near the back-up generator.  
  
Yix made his way over to the crates while Mace bent over the crystal shards. Qui-Gon stood in the middle of the cargo bay, keeping a general eye on things as his dark friend abandoned the crystals and went to aid Yix with the crates, helping the slight crewmen move the bulky boxes with the Force and good old fashioned muscle.  
  
Hey Q.G.J! Dram's voice barged into his ear loudly at the same time as Peire's, who was telling him that the other Knight and his group were moving back towards to main hall.  
  
Already?  
  
There wasn't much left. Jayce answered. He could just see her tossing that auburn mane of hers as she said this. And the longer we stay on, the longer we test that power link.  
  
It'll hold. Dram grumbled over the head-set comm.  
  
Don't hurry on our account. Mace informed them, nudging a blacked tarped crate to the side via the Force and inspecting the vents behind it.  
  
Qui-Gon felt a twitch along the Force, something much like a insect caught in a spider's web twang of a certain....wrongness...Mace was saying something to Yix about the vents and were they lead--  
  
--and the lights went out.  
  
"Alright." Mace said loudly, and a quick shuffle of feet told of a retreat to the center of the room. "Who didn't pay the bill?"  
  
A echo of confused cries from the main hallway reached them. Hey! You guys--  
  
We're fine Janny. Qui-Gon answered the frantic question with more calm than he felt. A Jedi Master had died in this room-a whole ship of people had died in this room and they were only three strong and why was he panicing because it was only a power short-out and Peire should have it up and going in about a nano-second because if he didn't he was going to KILL him and WHY IN THE HELL WASN'T THE POWER BACK ON!!!!!!  
  
~Breath Jinn, just breath.~  
  
"What was that?" Yix whispered frantically.  
  
~SITH!!!!!!~  
  
A rattle of metal hitting metal from near the vents that Mace was inspecting just a moment ago. He heard his friend hiss and the quick movement of a lightsaber being held ready.  
  
~Do NOT panic~  
  
Scrabbling of many feet pinging off the floor in the vast room, pulling a heavy weight and franticly scuttling about.  
  
Uhhh so what do we do? Dram's question sounded entirely too loudly in the cargo bay. Qui-Gon could feel as if many, shiny black eyes as cold as a distant star turn to that sound.  
  
Dram. he said as quietly as he could without betraying something was wrong. Take Jayce and Haris back to the Wake Angel.  
  
A low hissing sound from the darkness. The shuffle of something dragging.  
  
What about you guys-  
  
And see if Peire can get the power back on.  
  
Chittering in the gloom.  
  
Dram didn't answer, but he heard him barking something into a personal comm-unit even without the head-set.  
  
Lights please Peire. he snapped, and whatever lurked in the black scuttled towards the sound of his voice, chittering excitedly.  
  
No answer from the other Jedi. Qui-Gon was about to suggest they edge towards the exit, when a high blast of chittering froze the blood in his veins. There was a whoosh of air and the Jedi dove aside on instict, a green flash of light mingling with blue as two lightsabers activated in unison.  
  
Another burst of high chitteres, the clacking of something and the backwash of light from the blades illuminated the area around them.  
  
Qui-Gon almost wished it hadn't.  
  
A hissing scream this time as the light flashed into its many eyes, forcing it half into the shadows, but was enough for them to see a low- slung, insectile body covered in what seemed to be....scales..and beyond that--  
  
Yix howled in fright and tried to run, where neither Jedi knew, but before Mace could grab the terrified man, he bolted for the bay doors.  
  
The monster vanished into the darkness.  
  
"YIX!" Mace yelled. "NO!!"  
  
The lights flickered in a effort to restore them to sight. Qui-Gon caught a glimpse of a impossibly long tail snapping over a scaly back and Yix screamed once more before they were once again the the dark.  
  
The creatures warbleing call was drown out by a sound almost as terrible, screams, echos of the past brought back to the future by this hellish...thing....  
  
MASTER NOOOOOO!!!  
  
RUN MARIS!!  
  
Screams, so primal that no human in his right mind could have made, the screams of the dying and beyond, something that found the soul from where it dwelt in the body and feasted......  
  
"--the Hell...." Mace snarled, backing up to Qui-Gon, his saber gripped tightly.  
  
MASTER!!!!  
  
"ILLIAN!!!" howled another voice, a war cry from a world wild and untameable as the wind and twin flashes of gree and blue glowing blades erupted into the black as Dram Jani leapt at the monster, both weapons pointed down and driving home for a killing blow.  
  
Inhuman screeching, then the two light blades flashing in a dizzing defensive pattern, sizzling sounds of sabers cutting through spidely legs, a furious clacking noice and then the terrible sound of something squishing before the blue blade powered down. Qui-Gon had forgotten that Dram had taken possesion of Maris Mynal's weapon.  
  
"Dirty bastard." a harsh voice spat, thick with his homeland accent in his anger.  
  
"Janny...."  
  
"Jayce and Haris are on the Angel." Dram snapped, the sound of a boot kicking something in contempt.  
  
"That did not kill the entire crew of the Kiss." Mace growled. Qui-Gon agreed. Dram's footsteps started towards them.  
  
"Are you sure it's dead?"  
  
Dram snorted and at that moment, the lights flickered again, a muscle twitched and snapped forward.  
  
"DRAM LOOK OUT!!!" Qui-Gon shouted. The blond man started to turn, but the barbed end of the creatures tail exploded through his shoulder, dragging him down, his saber falling from his hand.  
  
Then the lights died again. 


	5. Midnight's Coming

Hours of Midnight  
  
Disclaimer--I do not own Star Wars or any of the characters except for my own.  
  
Author's Note--Yeah, the title (located after the second author's note) is rather corny, but you can't just jump from darkfall to midnight without something happening in between. And my spell checker doesn't exsist, so if there are misspells (and there will be) just ignore them.  
  
And a great big huge thanks to all those people who have taken the time to review!  
  
And mayhaps I went a little overboard with the first and fourth chapters, but there is a lot worse than this out there. :)  
  
Sorry.  
  
A/N/2--Sensless blather! Yeah!  
  
Where is Maris's body you ask? Hahaha! Wait and see!  
  
And there will be no more Koontz quotes on grounds that I lost the paper that they were all on. If I can find it again, I'll repost with them included.  
  
And no, Obi-Wan is not in this story.  
  
Yes, I know it's rather gross and doesn't follow known character patterns.  
  
And by God there WILL be run-ons and fragments. Pity my english teacher. She tried.  
  
I like reviews.  
  
And Mountain Dew.  
  
This story scares me.  
  
Which is damn bad if I wrote it, I like humor better. It's a great defensive weapon.  
  
And do you think I should change the rating of this fic? Maybe an R?  
  
I'm done. ~Grin.~  
  
For now.  
  
  
  
Chapter Five--Midnight's Coming  
  
LIGHTS! Mace bellowed into his head-set, snatching at the Force in the same instant Qui-Gon snapped forward, speed inhuman, to the aid of the fallen blond.  
  
The beastly chittering reached a new high when the emerald glowing lightsaber whipped downward, missing a struggling Dram by a hair and shearing through the overlapping armored scales of the insectile monster.  
  
Screaming now, the scorpion-like...thing....scrambled back, its mandibles clicking in the darkness as it dragged its shattered body through the shadows cast by the lightsabers.  
  
Qui-Gon tried to follow its crippled form, but not even the Force would let him know where the creature was hiding right then--and following it blindly would just get him killed. He shot a quick glance at Mace, who was rolling Dram over, checking the extent of his injuries before helping him stand.  
  
"Yix?" the dark skinned Knight asked, jerking his head in the general direction. Qui-Gon shook his head helplessly. They couldn't take them both, but.......  
  
Peire. Jinn said again into his head-set, barely keeping from gritting his teeth as the chittering of the wounded beast was joined by a second, then a third. Now would be good.  
  
The wretched chorus had been joined by a forth, fifth and soon Qui-Gon lost count of the screeching and scrabbling as he kept guard while the trio retreated--Mace snatching up Dram's fallen weapon before they abandoned the infested pit--to the cargo bay entry way before it was cut off.  
  
"Yix......" Dram hissed through bared teeth, one hand clutching at his shoulder.  
  
Qui-Gon shook his head, no chance of going back for the body, if there was anything left, not now. The scuttling ping of the insectile feet was fast approaching their way as they fled to the main hall.  
  
Nothing on the Force suggested that there was anything back in the cargo bay alive--  
  
--a spidery shape launched itself from the shadows behind them, shrieking mindlessly. Qui-Gon pivoted and slashed on pure instict, the green blade slicing through, sizzling on contact with the jelly-like innards of the thing. (gross? hehe. There is a reason for the squishyness.) It hit the floor with a wet, squishing noise, almost as if it had dissolved on death.  
  
No time to ponder that, the main hall was in sight and to top it all off, Dram had passed out. Mace hauled the blond along swiftly, snarling something about a certain Illian who needed to diet or start thinking about the people who had to drag him through man-eating-critter-infested ghost ships before he did something stupid like turn his back on something like the things following them.  
  
Or something to that affect.  
  
The hellish choir seemed closer, a host from the darkness desending upon their circle of feeble light.  
  
They reached the main hall, and it seemed to be a hundred miles to the becon of light at the end that denoted the Wake Angel.  
  
"I say we give them Dram's socks." Mace growled and picked up speed as the passage became less obstructive without all the corners. The blond twitched but did not awaken.  
  
"Give them a fighting chance." Qui-Gon retorted and spun, swinging his weapon in a half-circle in the hall they were putting behind them, illuminating the front legs of yet another monstrosity who thought to sneak through. It screeched and leapt at him at the same time as a second beast from the wall came at Mace. The Knight unceramoniously dropped his friend and brought his lightsaber up all in a blink. The creature died in a instant while the floor hugging beast that came at Qui-Gon broke off and scuttled back into the darkness, joining the dozens of shiney black eyes that emerged form the cargo bay.  
  
"I love you too Mace." came Dram's sarcastic remark. Awakened from the rude jolt he recieved, he stood somewhat painfully and backed away closer to the Wake Angel.  
  
Mace was too busy retreating with Qui-Gon to answer, and shoulder to shoulder, the three Knights backed up, their flashing blades keeping whatever foolish monster that attacked at bay.  
  
Dram felt a tugging on his hair just as a sizzling bolt from a heavy blaster ripped through the air right beside his head. The blond Jedi howled something in Illian and fell backwards, landing on his shoulder and setting up a shouting rant that the chittering in the darkness halted for a blessid moment as if amazed that a mere human knew such hellish words.  
  
Qui-Gon risked a look back and a glimmer of hope wormed its way into his mind at the sight of a disheveled Jayce striding towards them, a shoulder mounted blaster gun leading the way.  
  
"Move!" she barked and began to fire again, picking off any shapes that thought to attack once Dram had stopped screaming and had passed out again.  
  
Qui-Gon hauled the blond backwards while Mace smacked back any monster that Jayce missed, until they had managed to fall even with the blaster weilding spacer.  
  
Opening the airlock. Peire's even toned voice filtered in through their comms.  
  
"Fall back." Jayce ordered and fired point blank into the face of a beast who had leapt at the retreating group.  
  
"Come on!" Qui-Gon snapped, trying to pull her back with them.  
  
"I hate spiders." the spacer returned and switched to the blasters secondary mode (for those who have played Perfect Dark, think the SuperDragon.)  
  
The airlock slid open with a startling velocity (don't those doors in Star Wars bother anyone else? Damn things are FAST) and Mace all but slung Jani through before diving behind him as Jayce pulled back a latch on her weapon and fired a flash grenade into the seething darkness hording towards them.  
  
Qui-Gon and the auburn haired spacer were flung backwards when the shock wave slammed back into them, right into Dram.  
  
"SHUT THE DOORS!" Mace bellowed and with a Force aided speed, the airlock doors clicked shut, leaving only the pounding of the unknown on the other side.  
  
Jerit and the other crew, along with Peire, helped them to their feet hastily, afraid that whatever was pounding on the other side of the doors would be getting through at any moment.  
  
"Yix! Where's Yix....?" the captain demanded. Qui-Gon shook his head. "We couldn't go back....I'm truly sorry."  
  
Dram stood painfully. "Detatch us from that thing." he snapped to Haris and leaned heavily against the closest wall. "There's nothing we could do."  
  
"You got yourselves out." Jerit snarled in accusation, prompting Dram to come up off the wall and start towards the spacer. "You listen here you little son of a--"  
  
"Dram." Qui-Gon barked sharply and with a glowering look of reprimand, he faced the angry captain. "We really need to detatch the Wake Angel until we find out what's on that ship...."  
  
"My dead crewman." Jerit growled. The pounding on the airlock faded as suddenly as it had started. All looked at aprehensivily.  
  
"Yeah," Mace said. "That was a good thing."  
  
Qui-Gon looked at him darkly, bad enough for Dram to be stomping on the toes of everyone else.  
  
"Maybe they went away." Jayce suggested hopefully, but level another blaster at the door.  
  
Silence so long that it seemed forever thinned and broke with the sudden scream of "HELP! LET ME IN!!"  
  
"The hell--?" Haris breathed and rushed to the tiny window that showed the darkness of the Twilight Kiss. He turned back, confusion and hope warring on his face.  
  
"It's Yix!" he shouted and reached for the controls to open the door. Dram grabbed his hand tightly before they could reach it.  
  
"That door doesn't open."  
  
"That's my crewmate!" Haris argued. The pounding of footsteps replaced those of the beatings on the door as the thought dead crewmen came towards the airlock, screaming for them to open it.  
  
"It doesn't open." the Illian Jedi growled thickly and shoved the others hand away.  
  
"I'm the captain of this ship and I say--" Jerit began.  
  
"There is nothing alive on that ship but Death itself." Peire put-in calmly. Dram still wanted to choke him anyway.  
  
"He's coming!" came Yix's terrified scream and suddenly fists began beating on the airlock. "Somebody help!"  
  
"Get out of the way Jedi." Jerit ordered, shoving Dram away from the controls. The hot-tempered Knight shoved back.  
  
"You're not opening that door."  
  
"OUT OF THE WAY!" Jerit shouted and slammed the blond on his wounded shoulder, shoving the yelling Knight away and smashing on the controls even as Qui-Gon rushed to stop him--  
  
--And the doors opened.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
A/N: Man, I hate cliffhangers, don't you? hehe. 


	6. Eleventh Hour

The Eleventh Hour  
  
Disclaimer--Don't own Star Wars, never will.  
  
Author's Note--I had to finish all the X-Wing novels before I could start writing on this, so you blame them. Those things are addictive. And as a side note, I know things might be going a little fast with them finding out what it MIGHT be, but I am soooooo tired of them running around with nothing to do be scream at each other and get smacked down and freaked out by IT. Got it? Good.  
  
Jangojangojangojanogojango.....kinda catchy isn't it? Try walking through the mall when someone's chanting it five hundred times a minute because they want the rotating Jango Fett bust in the book store. You know who you are, if you'd ever review ShalarinFae/I know who you are because you live five miles away and we have to find a day to watch all the SW movies and drink Mountain Dew when a stormtrooper does something stupid because you don't believe in answering e-mail thus I have resorted to shameful tactics such as this to entice you to start replying to your friends before we gang up and rip the tires off your car.  
  
Or something to that effect.  
  
Happy Birthday by the way, Shal, or should I say.......PINK CHICKEN!!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Did Episode Two just freaking ROCK or what?! Yoda kicking @$$! Oh yeah! Yoda kicking @$$! Oh yeah!  
  
Anyway.........~clears throat~  
  
  
  
The whoosh of the door sliding open nearly covered the sound of Qui-Gon's pounding heart, but not quite. His out reaching hand brushed Jerit's arm as the captain of the Wake Angel sagged backward with the weigh of Yix dropping into him. In a flowing circle, the young Knight whirled and smashed his palm against the control panel, sealing to airlock shut once more, all in a mere moment of time.  
  
As if it had never happened.  
  
But it had. Dram's agonized howl had retreated to a painful snarl as the blond Knight slowly pulled himself off the floor, clutching his shoulder tightly and nothing but raging blue fire in his eyes. Mace had one hand on his brash friend to restrain him and the other clutching his lightsaber, his gaze alternating between Qui-Gon, the door and Yix.  
  
Haris stood with a expression that mirrored Jayce's--surprised shock etching their features at their crewmen's supposed return from the dead and their captains display against the Jedi.  
  
And that Sith-cursed chittering had once again started, a gentle scrapping sound against the airlock as the creatures sought entry, the find the ones who had escaped them.  
  
"We all need to think rationally here...." Peire said with a shattering of the silence that had taken the inhabitants of the Wake Angel. "We have to...."  
  
"Nothing to think about." Captain Jerit L'ttle returned harshly to the Barisian Jedi, then to Yix. "Are you alright?"  
  
The crewmen shook his head, eyes so wide and huge that it would have been comical if they hadn't been filled with so much terror. Anything that issued from his mouth was so garbled from fear that it was completely inaudible.  
  
Jerit shook him gently, then turned to Haris. "Take him to med-bay."  
  
"What about Dram...." Jayce protested. The blond Knight sent her a glare that suggested he didn't appreciate her help and straightened with a masterful effort. "I'll live."  
  
"Illians." Mace growled under his breath. "Fine, then at least wrap it before you bleed all over."  
  
"Yes mother."  
  
Qui-Gon nodded. "Mace, take Janny and escort Miss Jayce and Yix to the med-bay. Anything happens..."  
  
"Tuck your head between your knees and kiss your...."  
  
The tall Knight leveled a flat stare at them and made a shooing motion. "Peire and I can handle this."  
  
Dram muttered something concerning Peire and Qui-Gon's ability to dress themselves alone, let alone guard the door and defuse the captain, before Mace dragged him off.  
  
Qui-Gon wheeled back to the captain. "I wouldn't have advised that." he said dryly. The chittering had faded, drawn back to the hellish cargo hold.  
  
For now.  
  
Jerit drew himself up defensibly. "I am responisble for my crew."  
  
"I am aware of that." the tall Knight agreed. "But the Force does not lie. Yix was dead."  
  
"Your vaunted Force," the captain spat. "Dead men don't walk. Come on Haris, we have to see about deconnecting with the Kiss." And with that, the two officers dissapeared past the hall, leaving the Jedi to watch the airlock.  
  
Peire shook his head sadly, his blue hair shining in the harsh light of the hallway. "If this is what I believe it is, then there is not a chance we will be able to leave."  
  
A chill raced through Qui-Gon, sure as a Hoth blizzard. He faced the Barisian Jedi slowly. "Repeat that and explain." he said darkly, eyeing the airlock closely.  
  
Peire shrugged. "I managed to recieve a reply from the Ghar military just as you entered the cargo bay of the Twilight Kiss."  
  
"And you never thought to share this information until now? Peire, I'm going to LET Dram beat you."  
  
The blue haired Knight continued without hearing Jinn. "They found the Nova's Fate (ITALICS BE SPIT UPON!!!) seemingly abandoned. Apparently, from the ship's log, the Kiss had docked with them for only a moment to answer a distress becon at Master Adsion's bidding and found nothing. The Kiss's Captain Plym reports that the ship was empty and reported it to the Ghar before continuing on."  
  
"And salvaged materials." Jinn added and dared to peek through the airlock window. It might have been his imagination ot jittery nerves, but at the far end of the hallway, the phantom of a shadow flickered in his line of vision. He pulled back quickly.  
  
"Correct." If the other Knight noticed his antics, he ignored them, and even didn't appear to lose that controled calm that Qui-Gon was striving for. "In the archives at the Temple, it speaks of a ancient Jedi, long before even the Sith Wars (mayhaps some facts will be a little shakey on the timeline of things, so anything wrong is my fault. Blame me, everyone else does:) called Fles Penja who......."  
  
"Short, sweet and in Basic Peire."  
  
This caused for a raised azure eyebrow. "....who left the Temple when the Council decreed that his experiments with the Darkside were too dangerous to be allowed continued."  
  
Standing in the hallway of a ship connected with something that was beyond his comprehension, Qui-Gon stood, shocked into silence as Peire continued to tell of Fles Penja's fall to darkness and his subsequent dissaperance from the galaxy.  
  
"They allowed......" Jinn started. Peire nodded. "It's a rather interesting read, though you must have the permission of the Council to obtain it. I believe that I was doing a special project for Master Plo......"  
  
"It this thing Fles Penja?" Qui-Gon cut in.  
  
"If it is, I imagine he's not going to be too fond of Jedi.....or anything living."  
  
"So basically. we're all dead."  
  
"Basically, only if it...he....gets off that ship before we can destroy it."  
  
"We're going to blow it up?"  
  
"Hopefully."  
  
Jinn snatched up his head-set, still dangling from his side haphazadly and brought it to his mouth. MACE!!!!  
  
A skrieking squelch told of damages beyond repair to the comm. Qui-Gon glared at it for a bare second before turning towards to med-bay. "Get on the comm and call the Temple!" he shouted back to Peire and used those long legs to his advantage in a all out sprint.  
  
For ONCE he'd like something simple.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Mace Windu jiggled the head-set in his dark hands experimentally, wondering what that sudden skrieking sound had been while Dram sat sullenly, gnashing his teeth in either frustration, pain, or pure outrage that something had gotten the better of him.  
  
Jayce Ltt'le, ofter ordering the ruined shirt off and settled Yix into a med-scanner, was now swabbing gently at the hole in the Illian's shoulder, ignoring his mumbled hisses and general grumbles.  
  
"Can you move your arm?" the auburn haired spacer inquired, setting aside the crimson soaked cloth and water basin and picking up the neatly cut bandages at her side.  
  
Dram favored her with a sqinched blue scowl and shook his head darkly. Jayce nodded and motioned for Mace to hold Jani's arm out so she could wrap it properly. "For the record, it went completely through bone and muscle, but it missed major veins and arteries. You're lucky."  
  
Dram snorted. "Yeah. I'm lucky. Adsion and Maris.......not."  
  
"That thing....things....didn't kill everyone on the Twilight Kiss." intoned Mace, shifting the blond's arm slightly. "You killed that one--"  
  
"If I had killed it, I wouldn't be in the med-bay."  
  
Mace ignored him. "And Qui-Gon and I went through at least four. They can be killed."  
  
The bandage was done, leaving Jani's entire shoulder swathed in white and his left arm nearly immobile.  
  
"If you could go a week without hurting yourself," Mace berated, imitating the blond's old Adonian master perfectly. Dram gave him a sour look.  
  
"Hey, I'm gonna hear that enough when----IF--we get home."  
  
"Wanna get home? Call Hart. She'd have these suckers killing themselves for hurting her little Janny."  
  
Jayce let them banter while she bustled around the med-bay, checking the stat bar on the med-scanner Yix was laying on. The crewman seemed in a almost comatose state. She gave him the once over. Nothing seemed to be broken, and he wasn't bleeding any, not even a scratch. Puzzled, she turned, gazing at the Jedi as Dram tested his left hand for mobility, flexing his fingers.  
  
Mace had gotten through with a few scrapes and bruises, the most prominate a cut on one leg, but it was barely bleeding.  
  
Back to Yix. The brown haired man had small globs of......jelly-like stuff that spotted his clothing a exposed skin. It almost looked like it was sloughing off his skin, melting his clothing...part of his clothing...  
  
And if both he and Dram had been in contact.....  
  
The hell.......  
  
She turned swiftly, returning to the Knights, they ceased talking and watched her intently. The auburn haired spacer picked up the cloth she had used to clean Dram's wound and spread it out, looking carefully.  
  
"Strange." she murmmered.  
  
Jani perked up in alarm. "Uhhhh...."strange" is not a good thing right now."  
  
She pointed to a suspicious looking lump that still held a gelatinish (is that a word?) quality to it. "That was in your shoulder."  
  
Blue eyes bulged. He looking at his swathed shoulder like he expected it to do something out of a horror holo-vid. "Forgive this utter lack of maleness, but.....ewwwwwwww."  
  
"It looks like the stuff on Yix too?"  
  
Mace went "ewwwwwwww."  
  
Dram said "He's got STUFF on him?"  
  
Jayce nodded.  
  
"Ewwwwww." both Knights said in unision.  
  
At the med-scanner, Yix groaned and began to thrash. Mace and Jayce both scrambled over to him, snatching at flailing limbs to hold him down before he harmed himself. Over the sudden screams of the stat bar and the spiking lines that accompanied the crewmens sudden awakening, the phrase "He's coming! oh gods he's coming!" was repeated over and over.  
  
"Call Jerit!" Jayce yelled, getting a errant smack in the face before she could get a grip in Yix's arm. Dram leaped up, making for the comm-unit built into the wall when....  
  
The lights flickered.  
  
Yix screamed once more, a terrible wailing howl that tore at the mind and sought fear that lived inside, feeding it to a breaking point...then stopped.  
  
The thrashing body went limp in Windu and Jayce's grip. Mace backed away, his dark gaze fixed on the expression of absolute fear that etched the crewmen's face in his final moment. The Jedi wiped his hands on instict on the legs of his pants, noting in disgust that they were sheathed in that same gelatin substance that had been on the crewmen.  
  
Jayce stumbled backwads, into a table and sent instruments scattering in all directions, her face a fearful parody of her fellow crewmates.  
  
The rows of bright light panels above them dimmed hesitantly, giving Mace and Dram enough time to reach for ready lightsabers before the coming darkness engulfed them.  
  
Jayce made a fearful squeak and stumbled once more, this time to her knees before the panels snapped back on.  
  
Yix's body was gone.  
  
"What the hell is going on here....?" Mace hissed, reaching Jayce and dragging her to her feet, heading for the door when it abrubtly opened, revealing a disheveled Qui-Gon Jinn, lightsaber in hand.  
  
"The lights.....Peire thinks he knows.....where's Yix?"  
  
"Went out, Peire thinks he knows everything, and we don't know." answereed Mace, hauling Jayce to the door with Dram investigating the med- scanner, and under it.  
  
Qui-Gon joined Dram cautiously, noting with relief that the bandage seemed to be helping. He heard the blond mutter something about "just like Maris's" and shake his head.  
  
"Alright, Peire's contacting the Temple, let's go." Jinn ordered after he and the Illian Knight scoured the med-bay wiith no results.  
  
Qui-Gon was the last out of the med-bay, but he still had the unnerving feeling he was being watched as the door slid shut and they backed towards the front of the Wake Angel, maybe to find out just what was happening, to find out what they were up against.  
  
Dram suddenly snapped his fingers (on his good hand, his other hung limp at his side) and smiled darkly, a dark gleam in those every shade of blue eyes. "I got it."  
  
"Is it contagious?" Mace quipped lightly.  
  
Dram ignored him and focused on Qui-Gon and Jayce. "Aight, lights go on, lights go off, right?"  
  
After a moment of deciphering what the Illian had just rattled off, Qui- Gon nodded. "Correct." he answered, narrowing his blue eyes shrewdly. A small grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"  
  
"Methinks me is. I knew that remote would come in handy." said an extremely pleased with himself Jedi Knight.  
  
"How is this......remote going to help us?" Jayce demanded in equal parts fear and anger. The spacer was clinging to Mace's arm and didn't intent on letting go anytime soon. Qui-Gon could feel the erratic waves of emotions rolling off her through the Force, nothing but a deep seeded focus from Mace, and a savage glee from Dram, who was clearly happy that he was going to be able to play It  
  
~Did you not tell yourself NOT to call it IT!~  
  
on It's own game.  
  
Lights on.  
  
Lights off.  
  
Simple as that, the remote could tap into any system and control it, snagging power away from It and dumping back to them.  
  
Then the lights went off.  
  
  
  
What the! Another cliffhanger? Could I be that evil? Yes indeed. And Moulin Rouge is playing in the background, so I have to go watch the end of it so I can cry my eyes out. Not a happy ending. Obi-Wan can sing. Really. Bwahahahahaha! ~throws confetti in the air~  
  
Dram: Cheese it! Guys, get the darts, we're gonna have to sedate her again.  
  
Qui-Gon: This ALWAYS happens. You HAD to give her the Mountain Dew, didn't you. *smacks Dram upside the head* The sign said "Do NOT feed the Weasel!"  
  
Dram: *smacks back*  
  
Mace: Dudes, stop and get the damned Weasel so she can finish this fic, I have a life too!  
  
Pop Weasel: Nanahahahahahahaha!!  
  
Till next chapter folks. 


	7. Midnight At last

Midnight  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own Star Wars or any related objects, characters, so-on so-forth. I do not intend to plagerize anything from anyone. Data has been gathered from many sources and ideas formatted to fit my twisted mind. ~WAVES HAND~ You will not sue me. I have no money, no life, and a horrible action figure fetish.  
  
Author's Note: Yeah yeah, it took me FOREVER to write this chapter. Got blocked BIG time and had to spend a week trying to work out the rest of the fic. Hurt me not. I'm an endangered Pop Weasel.  
  
  
  
Qui-Gon pivoted back towards the med-bay doors, preparing for the worse and hoping that Peire had gotten that message off to the Temple, but the frantic scuffles of those in the hallway was all that greeted him.  
  
No vengeful darksider.  
  
No monster from his worst nightmare.  
  
Not yet.  
  
"Lights on, lights off! Fascinating isn't it!" Dram shouted at this new development. In response, teasing almost, the broad panel lighting on the ceiling began to glow dimmly (is that a word?), giving them all enough light to see by.  
  
"It understands Basic." Jayce whispered, still clinging to Mace, who tried in vain to dislodge her from his arm without having to remove the limb entirely.  
  
"Do not call it It." Qui-Gon warned. His eyes searched for every possible way that they could be attacked. They were vunerable in the open, communication now would be hampered now that.....whatever this thing was...could understand them. And worst of all, it  
  
~Do not call it IT~  
  
was on the Wake Angel with them. Ready and willing to repeat the Kiss over and over again.  
  
"Remote." Jinn mouthed to Dram hesitantly. Who knew what sort of lifeform Penja could have assumed and was using to listen to their every word, breath, heartbeat.....  
  
Janny gave him a thumbs up, universal in all languages. "My room." he spoke without sound. "Not far."  
  
"Idiots." Mace muttered. "It already knows....."  
  
"DO NOT CALL IT IT!" His fellow Knights rounded on him, two pairs of azure eyes burning. Jayce flinched.  
  
"IT is not a IT," Dram snarled, advancing on Windu. "IT is Fles-I've-got- control-of-the-freaking-lights-off-on-Penja!"  
  
And the lights went off completely.  
  
"I don't think he likes you." the dark-skinned Knight pointed out, dragging Jayce along with him while Dram and Qui-Gon flanked him with their sabers drawn but not activated.  
  
"He can kiss my....."  
  
"And here we are." Qui-Gon said hurridly, having gotten to the quarters of the blond Knight hastily without incident, other than that nerve wracking twang that had the hairs on the back of this neck standing on end and that.....wrongness on the Force, covering it like a oil slick on a crystal clear ocean.  
  
Jinn moved to key the door open, but Dram waved his hand away and inserted himself in front of the control panel. His good hand flashed over the buttons. "There is a code. There is always a code. How long have you known me?"  
  
"Entirely too long." Mace intoned, plucking one of Jayce's fingers out of his skin. The lights above them began to hum and blinked back on with a harsh snap. "Hurry up, I want get back with the others."  
  
"Sissy." Jani taunted. Qui-Gon shared a frown with Mace. Dram wasn't usually so annoying and snappish, but the moment he stepped on the Kiss, he had turned ten times as hostile.. Laid-back Janny was stomping on darker grounds. Maybe they all were.  
  
There was a soft click and a hiss, and the door slid a few inches open before halting with a grinding noise, like someone of something had wedged an object in the door grooves.  
  
The lights, it appeared, were only on in the halls because inside the Illian's room, there was rich, black darkness.  
  
"Fantastic." Mace commented dryly. Qui-Gon jabbed a few buttons on the panel without sucess. "Cut it open?"  
  
Dram sighed and shook his head. "It should be on a desk by the door." He flexed the fingers on his good hand. "I might be able to reach it....."  
  
"You're NOT sticking your hand in there." Jinn objected. "You only got one left and we might need the saber back-up."  
  
"Gee mom, you're concern is touching." He was already up to his shoulder in the frame, a deep look of stubborn concentration on his handsome face. The Force, tainted as it was with the proximity of the foul evil among them, (I love my thesaurus) was still a ally.  
  
"You're explaining to Hart as to why he comes home with one hand." Mace told Qui-Gon flatly.  
  
A triumphant grin on the Illian's face told them they might just get to forgo a particularly disasterous meeting with the over-protective Hart del'Jordea. Mace closed his eyes and mouthed a word of praise for small miracles. Dram withdrew.  
  
Then jerked to a halt halfway out, his eyes fixed unerringly on the opening and the darkness beyond, the grin dying into a tight look of dread.  
  
"Dram?" Jinn asked softly, daring to meet those every-shade of blue orbs. The eyes of his closest friend scared him more than anything he had yet to witness.  
  
Jani was terrified.  
  
"There is a hand on my arm." the Illian whispered.  
  
"Damn." Mace said through bared teeth.  
  
The Jedi shared a glance at one another, right before Dram threw himself backwards and just as the hand in the darkness yanked him forward. He slammed against the door with a bone-wrenching thump and swung sideways as whatever had him tried to pull him through the small crack.  
  
"GET IT OFF!" he howled as Mace and Qui-Gon leapt at him, seizing their blond friend and endevoring to drag him back out without ripping his entire arm off. Jayce, releasing Mace in favor of a hold on the trapped Jedi, wrapped her arms around his waist and hauled backwards.  
  
"There is PAIN!" Dram snarled, using his feet to brace him from going further in.  
  
"You're the moron who stuck his hand in there." Mace snapped back. The lights flickreed madly.  
  
"You're the ones whose supposed to stop me!"  
  
"SHUT UP!" Jayce screamed and heaved. From within the room, something shrieked in inhuman glee.  
  
"BITING ME! IT'S BITING ME!"  
  
"Bite this." Jinn retorted and ignited his lighsaber. Moving on instict alone, the tall Jedi drove it though the crack. There was a long, screaming howl that left the ears ringing painfully, and Dram suddenly fell backwards, taking the others with him. They landed in a heap on the floor, scrambling backwards till they hit the wall on the other side of the hall.  
  
But through it all, when Dram pried his fingers apart, there was the remote, a little battered but still intact.  
  
Qui-Gon surged to his feet, brandishing the lightsaber in all directions to ward off a counterattack if one came....  
  
but nothing.  
  
Breathing. Crying. Boots scuffling on metal. A sharp hiss and intake of breath.  
  
That was all.  
  
"It bit me." Dram murmmered, examining his bloody arm. Then, to no one in particular. "I hate this place."  
  
Jayce eyed him critically. "Those are not bite marks."  
  
"Yeah yeah yeah." Mace dissmissed, snatching the remote away. "How do you work this?"  
  
Qui-Gon circled them, eyes never leaving the door, attuned to the Force so that it was nearly buzzing in his ears. Something not quite right....  
  
Jayce L'ttle gently took Dram's arm. "Fingernails....." she said to herself. Dram reached for the remote but Mace pulled it away. "It should be set fo this type of system. It pulls a pulse feed from the electrical currents. I already set it up, I was going to test it later.....it already has the systems down. No need to plug it in, it knows. Switchs in order: upper right-lights, lower right-doors, upper left-electrical systems, lower left-.....the holo-units....so-on. The rest isn't important except for the silver switch behind the cover plate, it overides the ship completely. Start, stop.....full control."  
  
"Would it be wrong to tell you I love you?" Mace inquired.  
  
"Set the date later." Qui-Gon informed them. "Let's....."  
  
The lights flickered. (Boy, I don't know about you, but I'M getting tired of that.) There was a soft scratching at the door to Dram's room, something seeking a way out.  
  
"Take over. Hit the switch." Qui-Gon ordered. Mace wagged his finger over the remote hesitantly before his fingers brushed the upper right switch--  
  
--Dram lunged at him, realizing one horrible thing right as his friend flicked it. "NO! It's upside down!"--  
  
--and this time, the lights stayed on, but all the doors in the Wake Angel opened.  
  
Jayce screamed, falling backwards in her haste to retreat. Qui-Gon swung around to the door that suddenly finished opening, bringing a green glowing blade up in defense against.......and froze in horror, his face a mirror of his fellow Jedi.  
  
It didn't move, just stood in the doorway, swaying slightly, limp arms hanging uselessly to the sides, one hand curled into the claw that had trapped Dram only moments ago, dribbling the Jedi's blood to the threshold where it dripped form torn fingers. Clothing was ripped, ragged, stained and frayed.  
  
"....Mar....." Dram breathed, a heatbeat in time, long enough to remember the girl this wretched puppet was now, the quick smile and flash of laughter, before in fell forward....no....lunged forward, a body with no direction, seeking only the living to destroy.  
  
It met with the hissing blades of three lightsabers, each dead center at differing angles. No resistance to the death strokes, no grace in the fall to the floor. Just the stink of burned meat.  
  
Mace helped Jayce to her feet, leading her away from the body, Qui-Gon queitly pulling a reluctant Dram away, towards the cock-pit, away from the fallen Padawan. The Illian stumbled only once, and when Jinn stooped to help him up, the tanned face was wet with tears that had been waiting just for that moment.  
  
"She never....." Janny tried to say. Qui-Gon nodded, a lump in his throat rising to cut off his words.  
  
It wasn't till they turned the corner and were well away from the med- bay, that he spoke.  
  
"We'll set them free." It was a promise to the air, a challenge to the enemy. "I swear."  
  
  
  
  
  
I know I know I know. Bad Weasel, BAD. Such horrible things, such unorganized Jedi. Keep in mind that their still young and learning. And this isn't normal Jedi-typs missions. And I'm not a normal person.  
  
I like butterflies.  
  
~cricket chirps~  
  
But not crickets.  
  
~cricket does not chirp~  
  
Smart cricket.  
  
Chaos and disorder......my work is done. Did I mention I HATE writing serious fics.  
  
I must now go terrorize Ferret (my brother) and feed Lloyd and perhaps scar some readers for life with this fic. 


	8. Nightmares and Revelations

Nightmares and Revelations  
  
Disclaimer: Ghaaaaaaaa! I DON'T OWN STAR WARS!!! WHOOOOOOHOOOO!  
  
Author's note: This chapter is more of a "what's going on back at the Temple" kinda thing. And it introduces some characters that will be in the next few follow-up fics. Sorry, it sucks worse than usual. A few cohorts of mine decided the fic needed to be branched out more and proceded to nag me until I wrote it. And it might explain why a certain Jedi is the way he is. :) OOC is rampant.  
  
  
  
Hart del'Jordea snapped up from a dark sleep, one slender hand reaching for the always ready lightsaber laying on the stand next to her bed, the other pulled back into a fist. Every nerve twanged madly in tandem with her hammering heart. Every breath was a hissing gasp.  
  
She had awakened from a nightmare.  
  
She had never been jolted awake by a nightmare in her entire life.  
  
The chrono beside her lightsaber read just past midnight, only an hour or so after she had actually gotten to sleep. The argent haired Adonian woman laid back against the pillow, listening intently to the silence around her, trying to discern what had awakened her, not wanting to admit she had been scared awake by some nameless horror.  
  
Nothing but the cool, familiar walls of her bedroom. Well, the Adkatian tribal mask that Dram had given to her as a "gift" leered rather darkly from the far wall, but other than "that" it was fine.  
  
The mask's carved ruby eyes gleamed and seemed to move.  
  
Yep, it was going into the closet first thing in the morning. Or, she thought devilishly, Dooku might find it interesting.  
  
When she staked it right outside his apartment door so that its fanged face met him first thing.  
  
Still, her nerves twanged. The nagging sense that her padawan was doing someting horribly stupid still clung to the back of her mind. The nightmare was fast fading, a lingering chill that shook her more than it should have. Throwing back her blankets, she padded to the kitchenette near the front of her rooms--the perks of being a Knight--and rumaged around until she finally obtained a glass and filled it with water.  
  
Loath to return to a sleep that would undoubtably be restless--and that infernal mask, Oh! she was going to beat that boy--the Adonian Knight replaced the glass and headed for the door, thinking a walk might de-twang her nerves.  
  
The door, however, slid open before she even reached for the controls. The familiar Force imprint of the newcomer was the only thing that kept Hart from sprinting for her saber. Her cousin NEVER knocked.  
  
"The Council just recieved a transmission you should see." Jeridin Alran informed her. Standing just over six feet, her flame red hair hanging in a lazy braid and half-closed emerald eyes, Jeridin gave the impression of a someone who could handle a planetary crisis between naps. Only five Adonians trained at the Temple, and two were of the same blood. del'Jordea's and Alran's were from the same stock, but the lack of height on Hart's part made it rather hard to believe.  
  
"Good morning to you too."  
  
"You were not sleeping, so don't pretend you were." Jeri replied dryly, leaning against the doorframe with easy grace. "And I go by time on Adon. It's just past dawn there."  
  
Hart managed to smile acidly and stomped out into the hall, sans decent cloths and not caring. "Sadist."  
  
Jeri smirked and dumped her own dark robe over the shorter woman. Hart let out a hissing grumble.  
  
The gleaming halls of the Temple were hollow without Padawans, trainees, Knights and Masters running about. It felt like a tomb, and to a person who had spent the better part of her life in crowded spaces, it was desolate.  
  
Jeridin didn't elaborate on the transmission, in fact, she didn't saw much more on the walk to the Council chamber--Hart could have walked to it blindfolded, considering how may times she had bailed her padawan out of trouble with the Council--and only saw traces of others, night-birds who couldn't sleep.  
  
Hart was rather surprised to see only a few members of the Council and one or two other Knights had gathred when she and Jeri arrived, taking a seat in a vacant chair and waiting for an explanation.  
  
Master Yoda sat across from them, listening intently to a serious looking Count Dooku. Hart made a face. That man was entirely too.....blah......even for a human. When Yoda saw that she was looking, he nodded, and suddenly, the chamber was quiet.  
  
(This is the part I didn't want to write on accounts that I lost my inspiration halfway through it)  
  
It was Jeridin that stood, striding to the center of the room without so much as a word to anyone and activating a holo-unit that had been placed there.  
  
"We recieved a plea for aid aproximately two standard weeks ago by the mining colonies on the Outer Rim," the tall Adonian stated, gesturing to the starfeild map that the holo-unit produced. "Adsion Bilo and his Padawan Maris Mynal were sent to settle a land dispute there, they hitched a ride on the outgoing ship, the Twilight Kiss." The holo shifted pictures, following her words with recorded data. "From what we gathered then on, they answered a distress call halfway into their mission and four days later......there was a transmission from Maris Mynal.....I do not wish to replay that message out of respect for those who knew her." At last, the stonic red-head looked shaken.  
  
"The fate of young Maris, we know." Yoda said gravely. "Missed, she will be."  
  
Another gesture, and the holo changed to the data screens of information they recieved from the Barisian Knight Peire. "Four more Knights were dispatched to investigate. Qui-Gon Jinn, Mace Windu, Peire Cant and Dram Jani. All capable and....fairly intelligent."  
  
"For men." Hart muttered, managing to keep the worry from her voice. Adon was ruled by females. It was hereditary and ingrain for females to be doubtful of males.  
  
"Agreed," Jeridin and another woman Knight chimed in. Hart caught the others eyes, and twisted a strained smile. Tahl shouldn't be here, she thought.  
  
(No offense to men........hehehe)  
  
"There was a transmission only minutes ago from the Wake Angel." Jeri frowned. "Play it."  
  
There was a hiss of static, then......  
  
......ake Ang............Repeat......This is the Wake Angel to the Jedi Temple. We have a problem.  
  
(I couldn't help myself. The weasel's told me to.)  
  
The crew of the Twilight Kiss are dead. The Wake Angel has suffered one casualty presently. Contact with the ship resulted in injuries superficial to survey team with one exception.  
  
"Who was it?" Hart demanded. "Was it my Janny?"  
  
"Sit down you raving lunatic." Jeri ordered.  
  
I have sent the information I have gathered on the theories we have thought of. Please reply.......as quickly as possible........Wake Angel out.  
  
Silence was as thick as rancor drool. (Good image, yes?) The gathered Jedi poured over the data that Peire sent, reading but not fully understanding.  
  
"Fles Penja is dead." Tahl observed, setting aside the data-pad and rising to examine the holo-unit beside Jeridin. "He was banished...."  
  
"He was asked to stop his tampering with the Force and decided to press on anyhow." Count Dooku amended. "It consumed him."  
  
"The Darkside?" another Knight piped in.  
  
"Possibly." the stately Jedi continued. "He had left the Order before continuing with those absurd theories."  
  
"Correct, Count Dooku is." the short Jedi Master Yoda observed. "A toy not, is the Force."  
  
"According to what young Peire has noted," Plo Koon stood, waving at the holo-unit. "This....entity has not been observed as of yet. Only these creatures that they have encountered. They can be defeated, as the Knights proved, but not entirely."  
  
"Meaning?" Hart asked darkly, folding her arms and trying to ignore the pounding in her skull. Dram was doing something stupid again, she could just FEEL it.  
  
"Your Pada......Dram was reported to have killed one, only to have it reanimate seconds later and...."  
  
"IT HURT MY BABY?!"  
  
Jeridin thumped her soundly with a data-pad. "Quiet you."  
  
"Get to his theories." Tahl demanded, then blanched when she realized who she was talking to.  
  
"He was trying to tie the Force together." Plo Koon elaborated. "Keeping the balance through keeping it united. His idea was noble, but his ways were unoradox."  
  
"No kidding." growled Hart.  
  
"He eventually, according to Peire, succeded."  
  
This brought them all to attention. Even Yoda's ears snapped to alert. The Council chamber was a ghostly meeting place of silence and whispered breathing. PLo Koon, if possible, looked grimmer than usual.  
  
"In his own way. The effects were temporary, but it did managed to destroy whatever remained of Fles Penja. He is now, in a sense, anti- life."  
  
"I'm sorry," asked Jeridin. "Say that again. You can't be anti- life...there is no way...."  
  
"He is, Jeridin. And with that, nearly unpredictable. We have no way of knowing what he is now. Or what motives he might have in a shattered mind, all he knows, it that he connot ever be what he hunts, and it drives him more insane with every passing moment."  
  
Again, there was silence, until Hart rose and demanded. "And you sent DRAM to fix this?"  
  
  
  
Boy, did that chapter suck. But it's posted and now I can go back to the others. I hope you're happy Reo. I sooooo hope you're happy. 


End file.
